I Don't Want To See That In Your Mind
by Sivany
Summary: Set after the events of the sixth book, Harry gets help from an unexpected source, will he ever learn to close his mind? HPDM pairing later on.
1. Wrapped In Flames

**Disclaimer: **I don't really have to write this all over again do I? –Points at previous 5 chapters- I'm sure you get the idea.

**AN: **I've reached 20 reviews. Woohoo! Thanks to all of you, especially those who take the time to review each chapter, it's great to know what you all think of the different parts. This chapter gave me some trouble, especially the ending, but on the plus side it's a lot longer.Anyway read on and let me know what you think.

**Chapter 5: **Wrapped in flames

"Malfoy?" Harry was rooted to the spot in fear, what if Malfoy had been burnt alive, trapped suddenly as the flames closed in on him? Not even Malfoy deserved that fate. "Malfoy?" He repeated, this time more loudly as his feet finally co-operated and he ran towards the flames. The heat was incredible, Malfoy hadn't been exaggerating before and now he was trapped inside with no means of escape. Or possibly he was already beyond any wish of escaping.

"Malfoy where are you? Malfoy? Malfoy!" Harry was beginning to panic now as thoughts of what might have happened filled him with horror. What had he done? Why had he allowed Malfoy to just walk into the flames like that? He'd let his pride get in the way of his common sense, one silly little remark from Malfoy and now Harry had gone and let him get himself killed.

With no way into the flames Harry was at a loss as to what to do. He had half thought of flying overhead to see if he could see where Draco was; if he was there at all, but instead found himself pulling out his wand and sending a stream of water at the flames that now burned where the archway had been. As before the water hissed away into nothing as soon as it touched the fire, having no effect on them whatsoever.

"Malfoy are you in there? Can you hear me?" Harry's voice was now a panicked shout "Malfoy answer me! Draco!"

To Harry's great relief the archway suddenly opened again and a very hot, rather grumpy looking Draco emerged.

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"It's like being roasted alive in there" Draco moaned as he stepped away from the archway, feeling distinctly sweaty and uncomfortable. "Pretty good defence, just make sure anyone who tries to get through ends up cooked." For the first time he noticed the look on Harry's face, who was standing there looking both concerned and confused at the same time. "What's up Potter? Don't tell me you were worried about me?"

"You… you disappeared!" Harry desperately tried to collect his thoughts. He wasn't about to give Malfoy the pleasure of knowing that he had been worried about him. "What happened? Where did you go?"

"When you get a certain distance in, the flames start to close in behind you as you move forwards. When I realised I came back." He gave his characteristic smirk before continuing, "After all I wouldn't want you to start worrying about me."

Draco wasn't about to admit that when the flames started closing in behind him he had been terrified and had come back because he couldn't stand being alone surrounded by nothing but the heat and noise of the fire. When the flames had opened up just in time for him to hear Harry's panicked shout of his name, he had never been so pleased to see him in his life.

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"I wasn't worried about you" Harry lied "I was just concerned that the path had closed and I wouldn't be able to get through to the horcrux." Actually the thought of getting to the horcrux had never crossed his mind, and when the flames had opened and Draco had stepped out, he had never been so pleased to see him in his life.

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"Whatever Potter" Draco shrugged, he knew that Harry had actually for a fleeting instant been worried about his safety and had even called him by his first name. It made him feel good inside in a way he hadn't felt in a long time. Someone had actually been worried about him, not for selfish reasons of their own, but simply because they did not want to see him hurt. Suddenly his past seemed a very long way away.

Not that he was about to let Potter in on any of that. He pushed his damp hair back from his forehead and motioned towards the archway.

"So I guess we should both go in together this time. I'll go first, you follow." He hadn't liked feeling of the flames closing in behind his back, if Harry went last it would be his back the flames closed in on.

Harry opened his mouth to make an objection; Malfoy should stay behind, or at least allow him to go in front. After all this wasn't Malfoy's quest, it was supposed to have been something Harry had to do alone, and now Malfoy had randomly turned up and was taking over. Before he could say anything Malfoy had already strode into the archway and was looking over his shoulder, waiting for Harry to join him. Deciding not to waste time on an argument Harry quickly trotted over.

"Ready?" asked Draco, Harry nodded and Draco began to walk slowly forwards. The rate the flames opened up meant that they both had to take small shuffling steps and as they made their slow progress inwards Harry began to feel a strange sense of foreboding.

It was horrible inside the archway; the flames leapt eight feet high on either side and met overhead forming a strange tunnel of fire. All Harry could see was flames, unless he twisted his neck round to see the way they had come: a thin strip of black outlined by the brightness of the fire. Any moment now he knew that darkness would disappear.

"I feel like I'm cooking!" he yelled to Draco, turning back round to face the front. Already only a few moments into their journey he could feel the sweat trickling down his face.

"I told you it was hot." was Draco's only answer. Harry could barely hear him above the noise from the fire, especially since he was trying to keep a respectable gap between him and Malfoy, being so narrow the tunnel was claustrophobic enough without making things worse. Besides he had no wish to get any closer to Malfoy than he already was.

A sudden crackling noise made them both stop and turn round. The entrance had begun to close and the flames came together so fast Harry had to step backwards to avoid them. When they stopped Draco and Harry were left standing in a space barely wide enough to let them pass and not even a metre long, surrounded by orange and red flames so bright it made their eyes hurt, so loud they could barely hear each other and so hot Harry felt he was about to pass out.

"Come on, we better keep going." Draco's voice made him turn round ready to start their journey again. As they shuffled forwards this time, Harry kept checking over his shoulders at the flames behind, he was sure they were getting closer on his heels and began to shuffle a bit faster to keep ahead of them, almost bumping into Malfoy in his haste. Soon Harry was tripping over Malfoy's heels with nearly every step.

"Move a bit faster" he snapped impatiently.

"I can only move as fast as the flames open up." Draco snapped back, as Harry craned his neck to check the progress of the flames behind. They were still creeping closer and Harry shuffled forwards again. The flames continued to get closer. Harry shuffled forwards some more, but was stopped as his body hit something solid in front of him. Panicking about the flames, which were still creeping closer, Harry pressed himself into the obstruction, not even thinking about what it might be. The flames stopped, mere inches from his back and Harry turned round in relief, almost knocking heads with Malfoy.

"I know I'm gorgeous Potter, but do you think you could resist whatever urges you may be having until we get out of this." Malfoy drawled sarcastically, a wicked gleam in his eye as he looked over his shoulder at Harry.

"Shut up Malfoy" Harry snapped back angrily, his cheeks flushed with embarrassment as he realised his chest was pressed against Malfoy's back. "In case you hadn't noticed the flames are right behind me, I can't move any further back. Why did you stop?"

"In case you hadn't noticed, the flames in front stopped opening, I had to stop." came the scathing reply "You were the one who kept going, I'd have thought you'd rather be burned alive than get so close to me."

"Well I'd have thought you would rather be burned alive than end up in a position like this as well." Harry retorted.

"Whatever Potter." Draco sighed, turning back to face the front. "How about we actually try to get out of this position rather than arguing about what we think of it."

Harry was surprised; Malfoy had not only failed to argue back, but had also been the voice of reason that reminded him that this wasn't getting them anywhere. He actually felt vaguely ashamed for a moment, but then the remembrance that it was Malfoy who had started the argument stopped that feeling in its tracks. Most likely the only reason Malfoy had stopped the argument was that he hadn't been able to think of a cutting reply.

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Draco turned back round hoping that his ending of the argument wouldn't seem too suspect. The truth was he didn't want to argue with Harry right now. Sure he wasn't going to stop winding him up, after all that was half the fun of being around Harry, he was easy to wind up, but Draco wasn't looking for a full blown argument. Besides there was something else as well, something Draco could barely even admit to himself. He was actually enjoying having Harry pressed up against him.

Well actually maybe not Harry in particular, maybe it didn't matter that it was Harry, he wasn't sure. All he knew was that it had been a long time, too long since he had been this close to another human being. He told himself he didn't need contact, emotional or physical with anyone else, and until now he had believed it himself, but now he was beginning to think that he might. Despite the fact that they were both hot and sweaty, and no matter how many layers of clothes were between them, Draco still felt a slight tingle run through his body at the feeling of closeness.

He shook his head to clear the thoughts, the feel of Harry's breath on the side of his face told him that Harry was looking over his shoulder and he too directed his gaze to the flames ahead, squinting against their brightness.

Suddenly he saw it. Just for a second it was there in the flames, he heard Harry's sharp intake of breath and knew he had seen it too.

"The Dark Mark" Harry whispered. He didn't need to say it any louder for Draco to hear, the noise of the fire now seemed to him only like a dull drone in the background. There was just him and Harry and the awful knowledge of what he had to do next.

"What do we do now?" Harry's voice sounded unnaturally loud to Draco's ears and he didn't know whether to be relieved or more worried that Harry hadn't worked it out yet. If he didn't know now, he certainly would in a moment and then what would he think of Draco? It was a reminder Draco certainly didn't want to give him, a reminder of something that just moments ago had seemed so far away.

Draco realised his hands were shaking and hoped his entire body wasn't trembling too. He took a breath to steady his voice before speaking.

"My wand is in my back pocket. Pass it to me quickly."

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Harry was rather puzzled, both by Malfoy's request for his wand and by the fact that Malfoy seemed to be trembling slightly. It was a strange feeling to be pressed so close to a body that was shaking in that way, it made Harry want to put his arms around him and comfort him, even if it was Malfoy.

Instead though Harry attempted to extract Malfoy's wand with as little movement as possible, and was actually rather relieved to do so for it had been sticking uncomfortably into his stomach for the last few minutes. He managed to pass it to Malfoy by weaving his arm round Malfoy's waist, then without thinking Harry dropped his hand so it was resting on Malfoy's hip.

Slowly Malfoy raised the wand and muttered an incantation Harry could not hear. Something like black smoke shot out the end of the wand and into the fire in front of them. It took Harry's eyes a moment to adjust and realise that the smoke had twisted itself into the shape of the Dark Mark.

All at once Harry realised why Draco had been so nervous and suddenly found himself feeling quite sorry for him, he also realised where his hand was resting and snatched it away quickly hoping Draco hadn't noticed. The Dark Mark hung in the flames almost mockingly for a moment and then there was nothing but miles of deserted moor and a strange stone pedestal in front of them.

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Draco felt Harry's hand drop from where it had been resting comfortably on his hip as soon as the Dark Mark appeared. It was the reaction Draco had been expecting, after all the mark was a reminder that Draco was a Death Eater; that he had been trained in the ways of the Death Eaters; that he was marked.

Draco hardly noticed the flames had disappeared until he felt Harry step away from him, leaving him standing there feeling more than just the physical absence of Harry's warmth. It had been so easy, too easy to pretend the last year had never happened, to slip back into taunting Harry merely because that's what he did. Too easy to forget the past and slip into a strange sort of alliance with Harry, where they worked together towards the same goal. Too easy to feel he was trusted and think thoughts he had not thought for a long time. Too easy to shatter it all with one simple incantation.

"I thought I'd never have to do that again." He mumbled, rubbing his hand across his eyes. "I really didn't want… I mean… I…." He trailed off; unable to form a sentence that might make it all better, that might explain how he felt. Sorry was probably the word he was looking for, but he did not think to say sorry, sorry was a word Draco had been taught to use.

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Harry stood quietly as Draco struggled to find the words he wanted. Harry could see in his eyes what he was thinking; he thought that by creating the Dark Mark he had somehow broken Harry's trust. Even though it had been the only way out of the flames, even though Harry wouldn't have known how to do it and even though if Draco hadn't been there Harry would have been stuck wrapped in flames forever. The thought made Harry's blood run cold. Lucky for him Draco had been there really, so why did Draco not see it that way?

Draco was still looking at him silently waiting for him to say something and Harry wasn't sure what to say, this was a side of Malfoy he hadn't seen before, a side that was frightened of the consequences of his actions. Usually Malfoy seemed so confident and sure of himself, most of the time he was beyond arrogant! Malfoy's confidence wasn't just a front, Harry was sure it ran deeper than that, but it seemed even Malfoy had a side that wasn't so sure of himself. Then again maybe he had seen this before, after all hadn't he caught Malfoy crying in the bathroom last year? Harry still wasn't sure what he thought of that, but here and now he knew there was a simple way to make things better again.

"Well I might have been accused of it, but I can't really see me doing that spell." He laughed, mimicking Draco's smirk "Suppose we better look at this pedestal now."

"I told you it was a good job I turned up when I did." Draco drawled, after a short pause to let the meaning of Harry's words sink in. He pulled off a much better smirk than Harry's and Harry turned away to look at the pedestal, hiding his relieved smile as he did so.

Trust takes only a moment to shatter, but this was not that moment.

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Well what did you all think? I struggled over the ending becauseI didn't want Draco to sound all weak and vulnerable suddenly, but at the same time wanted to show that he is human somewhere underneath and that he realises his present position is very precarious. The fact that they are alone and are having to work together has sort of accelerated the idea trust between Harry and Draco but has not yet made it very strong. Anyway hope that makes sense. Next chapter Draco proves himself even more useful. Sort of. Whilst you're all wondering what that might mean, please review!

Love and lemons (because I've run out of lollipops)

Sivany


	2. Language Of Magic

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything, except a Christmas cookie and these lollipops. :)

**AN: **So many lovely reviews, thank you so much, I love you all! This chapter took me much longer to write, but the explanation is very good. 1) It's extra long and 2) I got so carried away I've actually written most of the next chapter as well so hopefully it won't take me long to update again.

**Chapter 7: **Language Of Magic

The large square pedestal stood on a wide circle of stone, and was ornately decorated with engravings. Across the front were glowing white lines which Harry recognised as the same as those he had seen in the cave with Dumbledore.

"Surely not again?" he whispered, remembering Dumbledore's words that night "Surely he would not have been so crude?"

"What is it?" Draco stepped up onto the stone circle next to him and Harry jerked round in surprise, for a moment he had forgotten Malfoy was there, he had been back in the cave with Dumbledore on that terrible night.

Bringing himself back to the present he fished around in his robes, he had prepared as much as he could for tonight without actually knowing what he would be facing, and one of the things he had brought was a knife. Carefully he ran the sharp silver blade across his palm, gritting his teeth against the pain and heard a sharp intake of breath from Malfoy.

"The pedestal has the Horcrux inside it, it will only open with a payment of blood" He explained, wiping his hand across the front of the pedestal "At least I hope it will."

Slowly the front of the pedestal opened revealing seven beautiful golden cups and one scroll of parchment, lit by an eerie green light coming from the heart of the pedestal itself. Harry stared at them in amazement, whatever it was he had been expecting this was certainly not it.

"How did you know?" Draco's voice betrayed his surprise.

"I've seen something like this before, it's very crude and too simple really, I would have expected more from Voldemort." Harry didn't want to reveal more to Malfoy just yet, he didn't want him to know about the Horcruxes already found and destroyed. Besides he was surprised that Voldemort had chosen to use the same defence on two of his Horcruxes; Harry had expected something more difficult, just like Dumbledore had in the cave.

He reached forward to take the scroll but was stopped when Draco grabbed his hand, wand drawn. For a moment their eyes met, then gently Draco turned Harry's palm upwards and ran his wand across the cut. At once the silvery light seemed to knit the cut together, just as Snape had once healed Draco in the bathroom at Hogwarts.

"Thanks" said Harry softly, when Draco released his hand.

"You really should learn some healing spells." Draco replied, arching one blonde eyebrow "Especially if you're going to go round slicing your own hand when surely a prick on the finger would have worked just as well."

Harry shrugged feeling a little stupid and wondering why he hadn't thought of that, after all on the way out of the cave, the small amount of blood from his grazed hand had been enough. Draco was probably right; a single drop was all that was required.

Again he reached out for the scroll, half wondering if there would be something to stop him. There was nothing. He lifted the scroll without any sort of resistance, but as he did so he noticed for the first time that three of the seven cups were filled with a strange silvery liquid. He shuddered involuntarily, praying that he wouldn't have to drink any of it.

The scroll was slightly brittle around the edges, after all it was probably over 20 years old, and when Harry unrolled it he could see it was covered with a close set green script, written in the same hand he had seen in Riddle's diary 5 years ago. Unfortunately it was written in some sort of strange language Harry couldn't understand. Parts of the words looked like spells or incantations, and some of it was set out rather like the riddle he and Hermione had encountered in their first year at Hogwarts, but apart from that there was nothing to give him any clue as to its meaning. He groaned and squinted at the parchment, as if screwing up his eyes might make the meaning become clear.

Draco, who had been attempting to get a look at the parchment over Harry's shoulder finally lost patience and yanked Harry's arm to turn the parchment towards him. Immediately he gave a small exclamation of surprise that snapped Harry's attention to him.

"It's Latin" he stated simply in reply to Harry's enquiring look and pulled the parchment from Harry's unresisting hands.

"Latin?" Harry repeated somewhat lost for words "You speak Latin?"

"Of course I do Potter." Draco rolled his eyes, as if this should have been obvious to anyone "Latin is one of the main languages of magic, didn't you realise most of the spells have Latin origins?" Harry shook his head; this wasn't something he had given much thought to, although he suddenly realised this would account for him recognising parts of the words on the scroll. Draco rolled his eyes again. "All Malfoy's can speak Latin, my father insisted I learn it. My name comes from the Latin for Dragon, surely you knew that?" Harry nodded, he had been told what the school motto translated as in his first year, it was a small leap to realise the origin of Draco's name.

"Well I suppose you're not a complete loss then." Draco consented "Now keep quiet, I haven't really studied any Latin for a while, it's a difficult language, very easy to mistranslate." Obediently Harry fell silent as Draco frowned in concentration occasionally murmuring to himself as he ran his eyes over the words.

At first Harry stood looking at the scroll as well, but any meaning in it eluded him and he soon became bored with this. He was also thinking again how lucky it had been that Malfoy had decided to desert Voldemort and come to find Harry tonight, when Harry could most use his help. For a moment it crossed his mind that this might be an elaborate plot by Voldemort to lull him into a false sense of security in Malfoy's presence. Perhaps he had sent Malfoy knowing that he would be of use to Harry tonight and would thereby be able to gain his trust more easily. Suddenly worried, Harry looked up at Malfoy, who was still studying the scroll, his lips moving soundlessly as he struggled to translate it. Somehow when he looked at him, Harry found he could not doubt his trustworthiness.

For want of anything better to do Harry turned again to the cups inside the pedestal. He knew one of them was the Horcrux, the cup belonging to Helga Hufflepuff that he had seen in Dumbledore's pensive, but he didn't know which one, they all looked exactly the same. If only there was some clue to tell him which was the right one. Without thinking he reached out a hand towards the cups.

"Don't touch them." Draco's voice broke Harry's reflections and made him pull his hand away sharply. Looking round Harry saw that Draco's eyes were already back on the parchment, but now his right hand was clutching at his left arm and his face was twisted into a sort of half grimace as if he was in pain. The Dark Mark was burning Harry realised, Voldemort was calling his supporters to his side and Draco was not responding.

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Draco gripped his arm tighter, trying to ignore the incessant pain. At first the burning had been the all to familiar pain of Voldemort calling the Death Eaters to his side and Draco had thought that was all it was, after all his father would surely have noticed his absence by now. That pain usually lasted a minute at most, this however had continued and Draco was sure that since he had started reading the parchment it had got much worse. It felt as if one hundred needles were pricking into his arm and burning him at the same time. He was beginning to wonder if this was some sort of defence to stop Death Eaters from getting at the Horcrux, after all Voldemort would surely have used extra protection in case anyone in his inner circle, who would know more about his ways and methods, decided to turn against him. Draco said nothing to Harry about his suspicions and when he noticed him looking at his arm moved his hand away quickly, gritting his teeth against the pain. He wasn't about to back out now, if he gave up Harry would not be able to get to the Horcrux and Draco felt that would be breaking his trust in him. He had made his decision and he had said he would help, so was just going to have to live with the pain.

"This is very complicated" he sighed at last, pushing a few strands of hair from his face. "Even if this were in English it would be difficult." He sat down on the edge of the circle of stone and looked up at Harry, luckily he took the cue and sat down next to him. "There are seven cups and according to this each one has a name. Three of the cups contain liquids, which although they look the same are three separate potions." He pointed carefully to part of the parchment where the words seem to form some sort of verse. "This looks like it's some sort of riddle to work out which cup is which and which potion is in each one."

"It's logic! Some of the best wizards don't have an ounce of logic." Harry interjected and Draco was surprised to see he had a smile on his face which seemed to light him up from the inside and shine out through his eyes.

"Just something Hermione once said." Harry explained, obviously thinking his strange outburst was the only reason for Draco's stare. "Carry on."

"Right… um…" Draco attempted to remember what he was saying before those rather strange thoughts had taken over. "Next there's some instructions about which potion to pour into which cup and the order to do it all in, again they are quite complicated, especially since they were written in such a way to give no clues to the riddle above. Even in English they'd be a nightmare to untangle, in Latin it's going to be even trickier. You can't take the cup with the Horcrux until you have done all of that. If you get it wrong…." He trailed off and starred at the parchment again "Well it doesn't exactly say what will happen, but I imagine it won't be good."

Draco fixed his eyes on the horizon, not wanting to look at Harry. He was feeling more unsure about all this by the second. Sure he could read Latin, but this was far more complicated than even the hardest texts his father had made him translate. Plus there was the problem of actually working out the riddle as well. Latin was a funny language; one slight mistake in the translation of a tense or a verb and the entire meaning could be changed, although it would still appear to make sense. What if he got it wrong and chose the wrong cup?

"I don't know if I can do this Harry." His voice was low and emotionless and he didn't take his eyes off the horizon as he spoke.

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Harry. Draco had just called him Harry.

He had thought that would never happen, but somehow now in this situation it didn't seem that odd. After all he had never thought Draco would be helping him to destroy Voldemort, that was odd enough, everything else paled in comparison. Besides there were more important things to worry about now, he certainly couldn't translate the scroll himself, Draco was his only hope of getting at the Horcrux.

"You have to try Draco." He said simply, willing Draco to turn round and meet his gaze. He too kept his voice low, although it held more warmth than Draco's had "I know you can do it."

Slowly Draco turned and silver grey eyes locked with his emerald green ones.

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As he looked into Harry's eyes, Draco felt his fears melt away. He saw a lot of things in Harry's eyes, more perhaps than Harry intended since Draco's gift at legilimens meant he usually saw beyond someone's eyes, unless he deliberately tried not to.

There was a swirl of emotions in those eyes: a sort of peace that showed Harry had accepted his fate, a determination to complete his task no matter what the risk to himself, a hope that tonight he would be one step closer to defeating Voldemort, a belief that Draco would be able to translate the scroll, and most of all a look that told Draco that even if he got it wrong Harry would know he had tried his best. That was the look that right here and now meant everything to Draco.

He pulled his eyes away reluctantly; not wanting to let go of that look and automatically rubbed his arm again. It was still painful, although it was now more of a dull throbbing than a burning sensation. Once again he lowered his eyes to the parchment to try and make sense of it.

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It was almost half an hour later before either of them spoke again. It was now the early hours of the morning, although dawn was still a long way off and the air felt damp and cold despite the fact that it was still summer. Harry had spent much of the time pacing around nervously, Draco however had not moved, his legs were beginning to feel stiff but he was determined to get every bit of the translation just right.

"I think I know what to do." He said at last. Harry visibly jumped as the silence of the moor was broken, but quickly recovered and hurried over to the pedestal.

"Which one is it?" he asked, unable to keep the note of impatience out of his voice.

"It's not as simple as that Potter, I explained that before." Draco snapped, he was starting to feel nervous again and it wasn't helping his temper "Just do what I tell you." To his credit Harry ignored the outburst and simply nodded as he came to stand next to Draco ready to move the goblets as he directed.

"Take the goblet on the far right and pour the liquid into the empty one in the middle." Instructed Draco, biting his lip as Harry picked up the goblet and began to pour the silvery liquid from one to the other. As it hit the second goblet the liquid turned a deep rich burgundy colour and Harry turned to Draco enquiringly.

There was just a hint of a relieved smile on Draco's face as he nodded, this was what he had expected to happen and it boosted his confidence again. For the next ten minutes or so he and Harry worked through all the instructions on the parchment, Draco carefully scrutinising each phrase before instructing Harry on which liquid to pour into where, creating a new and vivid colour each time.

When he reached the final instruction though Draco paused, from the way it was written it was difficult to tell exactly what the instruction wanted him to do.

"I'm not sure about this one." He admitted "In fact I'm not sure about this whole thing, it seems odd that Voldemort would leave a set of instructions on how to access his Horcrux."

"Maybe he was worried he might forget?" Harry suggested, although Draco could tell from his tone that Harry found it as unlikely as he did that Voldemort would forget how to retrieve his own Horcrux. "Actually I think he may have done it thinking that he may one day have to instruct one of his followers to retrieve the Horcrux for him." This explanation at least seemed more likely to Draco, although the irony of him helping to retrieve the Horcrux for Harry instead of Voldemort was not lost on him.

"Well what do I need to do?" Harry prompted eventually after Draco had spent a few minutes frowning at the goblets in silence.

"I think you pour this one" Draco pointed "Into here." Harry did as instructed, this left them with two goblets filled with a bright yellow liquid, one with deep purple liquid and four empty ones.

"Are they the right colour?" Harry asked, frowning slightly, it seemed strange that they should have an odd one out, instead of three the same.

"I really don't know." Draco confessed, "It stopped mentioning what colour they should be after that first red one. It's that last instruction I'm not sure about though and that produced a yellow liquid not the purple, so I'm pretty sure it's right that we have one purple."

Harry nodded thoughtfully.

"So now we just take the Horcrux?" Draco nodded, his stomach twisting itself into squirming knots.

"It should be this one." He pointed at the goblet second on the left and was rather alarmed to notice his finger was trembling. "But….." He trailed off. What if he was wrong? He had no idea what would happen if the wrong goblet was selected. Would the person who touched it die? Would Voldemort be warned and immediately appear to kill the person attempting to take the Horcrux? Or would they just not know until much later after they examined the goblet and found it to be just that, an ordinary goblet? Either way someone was bound to blame him, to say he had done it on purpose and that he wasn't to be trusted. Even if Harry said he wouldn't, he still might inside; there would always be a nagging feeling that Draco might have been betraying him.

And what if Harry died? Draco felt his stomach lurch at the thought. If Harry died it would be he who had killed him and no one would believe he hadn't meant to. If Harry died who would fight against Voldemort and who would stop Voldemort killing him for his betrayal? Even if they threw him in Azkaban, which they surely would, Voldemort would get to him eventually. If Harry died there would be no one left in the world who would trust him.

At that last thought Draco felt his stomach lurch again and he was sure he would be physically sick. Who would have thought that having someone trust him could ever mean so much?

"Wait Harry, let me take the goblet." The words were out of his mouth before he even thought about them and Harry looked at him in surprise "I don't know what will happen and if I've got something wrong..."

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Harry looked at Draco, for the second time Draco had called him by his first name and Harry knew what was worrying him. Draco was afraid that if he had chosen the wrong one Harry would blame him, thinking that it was some sort of plot against him. It was a possibility Harry conceded to himself, after all Draco was gifted at occlumens and as Harry had seen many a time when Draco had been injured, a rather melodramatic actor. If he could fool Snape he could certainly fool Harry. Somehow though this did not feel like one of those times. Something in those stormy grey eyes made Harry feel he could trust Draco, something in the way he spoke made Harry believe he was genuine.

"Listen to me Draco, I know you have tried your best with this." He began, running one hand through his messy hair. "If it's wrong I won't blame you."

"But if I'm wrong you might die." Draco's eyes were wide and held an emotion Harry had never seen in his eyes before. It was not fear he realised, but more like horror, as if the thought of Harry's death was too horrible for him to think about.

"Believe it or not I don't want to die." Harry gave a sudden smile, as he once again remembered Dumbledore's words to him in the cave "Even if it's the wrong goblet I don't think I will be killed. That's not the way Voldemort's mind works. If someone tried to steal his Horcrux he would want them alive because he would want to know why they had done it. It may knock me unconscious, it may cause me to be immobilised, it may summon Voldemort to this spot or it may render me incapable in some other way, but I don't think it will kill me."

"Let me take it." Draco persisted stubbornly, looking as if he didn't quite believe Harry's words.

"No." Harry's voice sounded suddenly very final "You're the one who can read the parchment. If it's wrong and something happens to me you must try again, then you can take the Horcrux and hopefully me to Hogwarts. If the worst should happen and Voldemort turns up, which I doubt very much, just get yourself out of here."

Draco opened his mouth ready to make an objection but Harry cut him off.

"No objections. I'm going to pick the goblet up now." Resolutely he reached forward and picked the goblet up from where it stood on the stone ledge. For a moment nothing happened and Harry dared to hope that they had picked the right one.

Then suddenly it was as if a great fist had punched him in the chest. He felt himself fly into the air. Then everything went black.

------------------------------------

Another cliffhanger ending. Sorry! -hides as things are throw at her- To take your mind off it I have a question for you: J K Rowling once said that not all Slytherin's are necessarily supporters of Voldemort, so I was thinking of introducing one later as someone who has joined the fight against him. I was thinking possibly Blaise, since I don't remember him or his parents ever being mentioned as Death Eaters. Let me know what you think of this idea and also please correct me if I'm wrong about him. Finally please review and I might let you know what's happened to Harry before Christmas, if you don't review I may torture you by making you wait till afterwards. :)

Love and lollipops

Sivany


	3. If I Had Learnt A Little Better

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything. I had some chocolate, but I ate it. Now it's gone. It's very sad.

**Some information I had forgotten was in the first book: **1) Quirrell tells Harry Voldemort was after him, not his parents; later Dumbledore refuses to tell him why. 2) James Potter saved Snape's life, Snape ended up leading Voldemort to Harry's parents: James died – Snape still owed him the life debt.

**AN: **Thanks again to all my reviewers. Everyone who answered my question about Blaise seemed to want him introduced to the story so he will be very soon! Sorry I made you all wait till after Christmas for this chapter but I just didn't have time to post it beforehand. Anyway I hope everyone had a good Christmas, or whatever else you may celebrate at this time of year. If you don't celebrate anything, I hope you're having a good time anyway :) Now on with the story!

**Chapter 8:** If I Had Learnt A Little Better

"Harry!"

The word was torn from Draco's throat and whipped away by the sudden gust of wind that ripped across the circle. Harry's body flew into the air as if it were nothing more than a rag doll and he landed crumpled on the ground several metres away.

Draco started to run over to him, but stumbled and fell as the most agonising pain he had ever felt sliced through his arm where the Dark Mark was burnt into his skin. It was like having the power of ten Cruciatus curses at once concentrated into his arm, or at least Draco could only imagine that was what the pain was similar too, as he curled up in the foetal position cradling his arm.

For a moment darkness threatened to engulf him, but after a minute the pain subsided a little and he was able to sit up, his eyes streaming as he gasped for air. Scrambling up he ran over to Harry and flung himself down beside him. There was a nasty gash on the side of Harry's head which was bleeding freely and he was unconscious, but he was still breathing. Somehow he did not seem to have broken any bones, unless he had broken ribs that Draco couldn't see.

Trying to ignore the pain in his arm, Draco grabbed his wand and performed a healing spell on Harry's head wound. It wasn't as successful as it had been earlier, the gash was not so clean as the knife cut Harry had made in his own hand which made it more difficult to repair.

That done Draco half thought about getting straight back on the broom and taking Harry to Hogwarts. That was where he had said to go and Draco desperately wanted to get away from the pedestal with its Horcrux and Latin riddle that had almost killed Harry. But Harry had also said to try to get the Horcrux again if there was time and Draco knew already, although he didn't want to admit it to himself, that he was going to try again. There wasn't much time though, Draco was terrified that the burning in his arm might be a sign that Voldemort knew someone had attempted to steal his Horcrux and even now might be summoning his Death Eaters ready to come and finish off whoever was stealing it.

Scrambling up once more, and pushing to the back of his mind thoughts about what might happen if he got it wrong again, Draco hurried over to the pedestal and retrieved the parchment from where he had dropped it. The seven cups were sitting as if they had never been touched, three goblets full of silvery liquid lit only by the pale green light.

As quickly as he could Draco followed the steps through again, it was a little quicker this time but he was still hampered by the pain in his left arm and his substandard Latin. If only he had concentrated harder in his lessons; if only he had kept studying; if only he had learnt a little better, none of this would have happened. Harry wouldn't be lying unconscious and he wouldn't be stood here feeling more terrified than he ever had in his life. He could stop, he knew he could stop and take Harry and go to Hogwarts, but something willed him on. He felt he had let Harry down, Harry had trusted him and now Draco had to complete this task, or at least give it another shot.

When he came to the final instruction Draco hesitated. There were two possible ways of looking at this phrasing, the first time he had chosen the wrong way and this time he hoped he would be choosing the right way. He picked up one goblet and poured the liquid slowly into another. This time it turned a deep purple. Two purple, one yellow, he noted. At least something different had happened this time; he assumed that was a good thing.

Taking a deep breath and glancing over his shoulder at Harry's unconscious form, Draco closed his eyes and picked up the goblet he hoped was the Horcrux. He stood still waiting to be thrown backwards.

When nothing happened he opened his eyes. And looked at the goblet. It looked the same as all the others but it somehow felt different. Not heavier. That would imply it weighed more when it didn't. Perhaps denser was more the word to describe it, although even that wasn't quite right. Whatever it was Draco was suddenly sure he had the right one and almost laughed out loud with relief, forgetting even the pain in his arm in his triumph.

He couldn't forget it for long though, another wave of pain hit him, causing him to cry out. He threw the parchment back into the pedestal, not caring that it had knocked over the other goblets and ran towards Harry. The feeling of dread, which had been growing in his stomach, now sat there like a stone and his urge to get away from this place was almost overpowering.

"Accio Firebolt" He yelled, drawing his wand as he ran. At once the broom came rushing into his outstretched hand, just as he reached Harry. He flung himself on, grabbed the back of Harry's robes and pulled the broom sharply upwards moments before the moor burst into flames.

The fires lasted only a second, for the broom was soon out of their range, but if Harry and Draco had been on the ground they would surely have been burnt alive by the inferno.

Breathing heavily Draco hauled Harry up onto the broom, his task made more difficult by his painful arm and the goblet he clutched tightly in one hand. Eventually though Draco got Harry into a comfortable position in front of him and wrapped his arms around Harry's body to keep him upright. For a moment Draco rested, his face buried in Harry's neck, his body enjoying the contact with Harry's muscular frame.

He jerked upright suddenly as a realisation hit him. Hogwarts Harry had said, but Draco didn't know where he was and he certainly didn't know which way Hogwarts was.

This was going to be a long flight.

--------

Nearly an hour later Draco and Harry were flying over Scotland on their way to Hogwarts. It had taken Draco quite a long time of flying, in what turned out to be the wrong direction, before he had found a landmark he recognised and he was able to get his bearings. By his estimates it would take nearly an hour more to get to Hogwarts, the problem was he wasn't sure he could last another hour.

Pain and the events of the night were beginning to take their toll on Draco's body. He was beginning to feel sick and faint as he urged the broomstick along faster. His muscles ached from supporting Harry's weight for so long and he was beginning to feel even more worried about him. He had been unconscious now for over an hour without showing any signs of life other than his steady breathing and rhythmic heartbeat. It was the heartbeat that kept Draco going. As long as he could feel it's steady rhythm against his arm he somehow felt that everything would be alright. This thought confused him though, since when did he, Draco Malfoy, think thoughts like that? He was becoming delirious he decided. He tried to think back over what had happened in the past few hours, but the pain in his arm made thinking almost impossible. Right now he just had to concentrate on getting Harry and the Horcrux back to Hogwarts.

One thing he had given some thought to, before the pain had become too much for him to really think rational thoughts had been the reaction of Harry's friends at Hogwarts. Draco assumed there would be people there who knew what was going on, otherwise why would Harry have wanted to go there? The Weasleys were probably there Draco realised, and Granger, and some of the Professors. How would they react when they saw him? With Harry unconscious there would be no one to vouch for him, they would probably think it was his fault Harry was injured. That thought reminded him that of course, it was his fault. If only he had learnt Latin a little better. They would probably hex him before he could even open his mouth to explain. They would order him to be thrown into Azkaban. After all they all knew his part in how the Death Eaters had gained access to Hogwarts. Maybe he would be thrown in the dungeons whilst they waited for someone to come and take him away. He was sure all the old torture instruments were still kept down there by Filch. Perhaps he would be tortured until he told them what they wanted to hear and incriminated himself. They would blame him if Harry died and with good reason, after all it would be his fault. Perhaps they would just let him curl up in the corner and die of pain. He would surely die of this pain soon. He couldn't think straight anymore, perhaps he would just let the pain take him.

He had felt Harry slipping from his grasp before he had noticed that he was falling himself. The adrenalin rush the shock had caused had probably saved their lives, and now Draco was determined to fix his mind on nothing but the flight and the thought of getting to Hogwarts as quickly as possible.

--------

It was a Draco half fainting with pain and exhaustion that eventually sighted Hogwart's through dull, glassy, grey eyes an hour later. As he got nearer he saw the familiar forest, the lake, the towers and finally the courtyard. This seemed to be lit with torches, as if there were people down their waiting for someone to return. Draco pointed the broomstick in that direction and began to descend rapidly. His fainting mind hardly heard the shouts as the watchers down below spotted the broomstick heading towards them and it wasn't until the last moment that he realised their descent was too rapid. He pulled the broomstick sharply out of the dive, turning just in time to avoid the courtyard walls. The broom whipped round the courtyard in a sort of half circle, as Draco tried to slow the broom down. Luckily they were going quite slowly by the time Draco's mind and body finally gave up the struggle and he collapsed off the broom, causing him and Harry to land rather heavily on the stone floor, the broom tangled between Harry's legs.

Just for a moment the jolt awoke Draco's mind and he saw Harry's eyes flicker open just a foot away from his face. He managed one word before his eyes finally closed completely.

"Hogwarts."

--------

Harry sat bolt upright suddenly, but winced and almost fell back again at the pain in his chest. Gingerly he rubbed his hand across his ribs, nothing seemed to be broken, they were just badly bruised.

It took a moment to get his bearings and realise that he was in the courtyard of Hogwarts, that Draco was beside him, and that the strange object caught in his legs was actually his broom. He extracted it quickly; eager to find out if Draco had managed to get the Horcrux.

As he scrambled towards him Harry noticed Draco had landed oddly and took hold of his left arm to try and move it into a more comfortable position. Almost at once he dropped it again when he realised Draco's sleeve was damp and sticky. With a gasp of horror Harry realised his hand was covered in blood and pulled Draco's sleeve up to try and get a better look. As he did so he couldn't help the small cry of revulsion that escaped his mouth.

They had landed at the opposite end of the courtyard to most of the torches, but even in the shadowy light Harry could see Draco's arm was a mess. The ugly mark that stained his arm, was now covered in blood, it looked as if the skin had been burnt black and then pricked with a thousand needles, making it run with blood. Harry had seen some terrible things, but nothing as terrible or horrifying as this.

He couldn't look at it, but at the same time found he couldn't stop looking. When he did eventually tear his eyes away, they landed on the cup clutched tightly in Draco's long pale fingers. Harry didn't know why but he felt tears stinging his eyes, he felt suddenly fiercely proud of Draco and what he had done. How long had his arm had been like that? It must surely be at least as painful as the Cruciatus curse, which was the worse pain Harry could imagine. Yet despite the pain Draco had still managed to retrieve the Horcrux and get them both safely back to Hogwarts.

"Harry, Harry is that you? Are you alright?"

"You've been ages mate, we were starting to worry."

"Is everything alright Harry?"

Harry quickly blinked away his tears as the beams of light from various wands fell onto him and Draco. Having got over their shock at the way the broom had careered round the courtyard and the fact that it contained twice as many people as they were expecting, Harry's friends had come running across the courtyard towards him.

They stopped short though when they saw the figure lying next to Harry. Ron was the first to recover.

"Bloody hell, what's he doing here?"

"It's a long story." said Harry, rising unsteadily to his feet and rubbing his ribs again. "Just don't hex him."

"He's unconscious anyway." He added as an after thought.

"Are you alright Harry? Did you get the Horcrux?" The concern that Harry could see in Hermione's face was reflected in her voice.

"I'm fine, just a little sore." Harry replied, and by way of answering the first question bent down to ease the goblet from Draco's grasp. As he held it up to the others, he couldn't help the triumphant grin that crept across his face.

That grin was all it took to change the whole atmosphere of the courtyard. Suddenly it didn't seem to matter that Draco was lying just a few feet away. It didn't seem to matter that Harry had not yet explained what Draco was doing there. He had the Horcrux, and more importantly he had returned safely.

Harry found himself being crushed in a hug from his two best friends. Hermione was crying into his shoulder and Ron was thumping his back, a grin equal to Harry's on his face.

"I knew you'd do it mate." He said enthusiastically

"Oh Harry we were so worried when you didn't come back earlier." Hermione sobbed quietly "What happened?"

"I'll tell you in a minute" Harry said, patting her on the back in an awkward attempt to sooth her "First though you're going to have to let go, something hit me in the chest and I'm going to have some great bruises tomorrow."

Hermione let go managing a small smile at his joke, but she still looked concerned.

"What about him?" Ron nodded towards Draco and Harry winced as he looked over and caught sight of his arm, the blood trickling in streams that shone red in the wand light. No one else seemed to have noticed it yet.

"I think perhaps you better explain what's going on." Came a third voice, this one was Professor McGonagall who had been standing back quietly with several other Order members as Harry's friends greeted him.

"Yes, yes of course." Harry gasped, feeling both nervous and nauseous at the same time. "But his arm, look at his arm. It's horrible, can't you do something?"

Professor McGonagall stepped forwards and knelt by Draco, shining her wand directly on his arm. In the clearer light it looked even more awful than before and her hand flew to her mouth as she turned away looking horrified. Curious, Ron and Hermione peered round her and immediately recoiled in shock. Despite their hatred of Malfoy Hermione looked like she was about to be sick and even Ron was grimacing.

"What happened to him?" Hermione asked.

"I really don't know." Harry shuddered just thinking about what might have caused it.

"How long has it been like this?" Professor McGonagall asked, she had now conjured up a stretcher and was levitating Draco onto it.

"I don't know that either." He confessed, and feeling that some sort of explanation was necessary continued "I've been unconscious for at least two hours. Maybe it happened when he picked up the Horcrux."

Only when Hermione and Ron looked at him strangely did he realise that he had only created more questions than he had answered with that statement and he sighed.

"Things didn't exactly go as planned tonight. I'll explain it all, from the beginning, but first I think I need a visit to the hospital wing to get something for these bruises."

"And your head." Added Hermione, wondering how she hadn't noticed the gash on Harry's head earlier. It looked nasty, although it wasn't bleeding as much as she would have expected. In fact it looked as if someone had already made an inexpert attempt to heal it.

Harry raised his hand in alarm, and winced as he felt the cut there. His head had been hurting but it had never occurred to him that he had cut it.

"Did you heal it?" Hermione asked, looking confused at Harry's surprise.

"I don't even remember cutting it, it must have happened when I got thrown backwards." He looked at the blood on his hand and nodded towards Draco who was now being borne to the hospital wing on a stretcher ahead of them. "I think he must have healed it."

"Malfoy healed you?" Ron asked incredulously "This is Malfoy we're talking about remember: the Death Eater son of a Death Eater. Are you sure you're thinking straight? That looks like a nasty cut, perhaps it's affected your mind?"

"Maybe." Harry grinned again, now he and the Horcrux were back safely with his friends at Hogwarts all the worries of the night were fading and the triumphs seemed brighter. His only concern was Draco's arm, but even that could be put aside now, as he was confident Madam Pomfrey would be able to fix it. All in all Harry was feeling positively giddy with happiness as he smiled at his friends' confusion. "I'm serious though about the healing, weird things have been happening tonight. Just wait till I tell you all about it."

-------

Explanations had to wait though as in the hospital wing Madam Pomfrey insisted on questioning Harry in detail about what had happened to Draco's arm as she rubbed several potions and ointments on it, persisting even after he had assured her several times that he had no idea what had happened.

"Look all I know is that he rubbed his arm a couple of times earlier, I just thought it was the Dark Mark burning because Voldemort was calling the Death Eaters to his side." Everyone in the room winced visibly as Harry spoke Voldemort's name, but no one said anything, they were used to Harry saying it every time he spoke of him.

Madam Pomfrey sighed, giving Harry a rather disappointed look as if she took it as a personal insult that he couldn't tell her more.

"I'm going to have to bring him round." She said after she had finished cleaning up the arm. Now that the blood was gone the outline of the Dark Mark was more clearly visible, although the skin still looked burnt and broken. "Nothing I try seems to be making it any better."

Harry felt his rush of euphoria fading as Madam Pomfrey spoke, he was so used to her being able to fix any injury he and his friends sustained that he had expected this to be no different. Now he was beginning to feel worried again. Even Hermione was looking concerned, she might have hated Draco but no one could look at his arm without feeling some form of compassion.

It took several attempts to bring Draco round and when he finally did regain consciousness it was with a cry of pain that made everyone in the room feel at least a little sorry for him, no matter how much they may have hated him previously. Before he could speak Madam Pomfrey pressed a pain relief potion to his lips, forcing him to drink the entire contents of the goblet. When that was done and Draco had finished choking at the taste, he looked round him in confusion before his eyes finally alighted on Harry and he frowned as if trying to remember something.

"You're in the hospital wing at Hogwarts." Harry informed him "Madam Pomfrey's trying to sort out your arm."

"Right…" said Draco faintly, dragging his eyes across to look at his arm and wincing as he caught sight of it. "It doesn't hurt as much anymore, that potion worked fast."

"Mr Malfoy." Madam Pomfrey called Draco's attention to her "Naturally I have never come across anything like this before and I'm at a loss as to what to do. Nothing I try seems to be healing the skin, we hoped you might be able to tell us something."

"You can't heal it." Draco stated simply, much to everyone's surprise. Gingerly he pushed himself up the bed so he was in more of a sitting position and rubbed his hand across his face, a look of resignation in his eyes as he gazed at his arm. "This mark was burnt into my skin using dark magic sealed with vows and oaths. I've gone against them. I've broken them all. There isn't anything you can do."

Several of the Order members standing in the room started murmuring amongst themselves at this speech, obviously wondering how much of it was true and what it meant Draco was implying. Madam Pomfrey though looked as if she was about to protest, not wanting to accept that there was 'nothing she could do'. Draco however cut her off.

"Just put a bandage on it or something. Please." The surprise at Draco having actually asked politely made Madam Pomfrey stop in her tracks. After a moments pause she nodded and began bandaging his arm, fussing as she did so.

"Once this is done you're to take this dreamless sleep potion straight away." She ordered "I don't know what's happened but it looks like you've had a rough night, you need a nice long sleep to recover." Having finished the bandaging she pressed another potion into Draco's good hand and he drank it willingly. Moments later he was fast asleep, a peaceful look on his face as if sleep had finally set him free from the problems of his waking life.

"Now Harry you look exhausted." Madam Pomfrey was already working on his head wound "This looks like it's been rather inexpertly healed, but it's lucky it has, you could have lost a lot of blood, it's a very deep gash."

"Malfoy healed it." Harry told her, closing his eyes and wincing in pain as Madam Pomfrey dabbed some ointment on his head. It stung for a while then stopped and Harry knew the wound had healed. He didn't open his eyes though, he suddenly felt very tired. When Madam Pomfrey insisted he change out of his robes he didn't even bother to argue and even took the potions she pressed on him without fuss.

"I think you'd better take some of this dreamless sleep potion too dear." Madam Pomfrey said kindly, putting a goblet of the potion by Harry's bed. Harry, who was feeling much more comfortable since Madam Pomfrey had rubbed some ointment on his chest to lessen the bruising was more than willing to comply, Professor McGonagall however looked as though she was about to object. "Any questions will have to wait until morning." Madam Pomfrey interjected firmly before anyone could say anything further. "Neither Harry nor Mr Malfoy will be leaving the hospital wing for the next few hours, things can be explained when they wake up."

Harry gave Ron and Hermione an apologetic smile, he desperately wanted to explain to them what had happened and how Malfoy had helped him, but he also desperately wanted to close his eyes and forget all that had happened for a few hours.

"It's ok Harry." said Hermione gently "You've had a long night and you need sleep, we'll just have to wait to satisfy our curiosity."

Ron nodded in agreement and Harry smiled at them both thankfully, realising once again how lucky he was to have such loyal and understanding friends.

"Thanks." he grinned, before Hermione smothered him with another hug "Take the Horcrux and put it somewhere safe, I promise I'll explain everything when I wake up."

Hermione nodded, releasing him from the hug and picking up the goblet containing the Horcrux that Harry had placed on the bedside table. Then Harry drank the dreamless sleep potion and settled down to sleep. The last thing he saw before his eyes drifted closed was Hermione reaching out to take Ron's hand.

-------------------------------

See not only do I give you all cliffhangers but I also make my characters wait for their explanations as well! Next chapter we will hear much more of the back story as I suspect Harry and Draco have rather a lot to say for themselves. Also so far Ron and Hermione have been pretty accepting. What with Harry returning safely and then Draco's arm they haven't had much opportunity to do anything else. You'll just have to wait and see if this continues in the next chapter, which will be called 'Some Things Are Just Coincidence'. Until then please review!

Love and lollipops,

Sivany


	4. Some Things Are Just Coincidence

**Disclaimer: **I think we all know what this is meant to say by now. If not just take a look back at previous chapters.

**Shameless self-advertising: **I have started another story (don't worry I will still be working just as hard on this one). It's very different to this one, so I shall give you the summary here and let you decide for yourselves if you want to read it. _"It is our choices that make us who we are, so what happens when a spirited young girl without prejudices comes to Hogwarts and allows the Sorting Hat to make her choice for her?" _I will also mention that Draco plays a staring role and undergoes several changes of opinion.

**AN: **Hope you all had a great holiday season and are looking forward to the new year ahead! Also apologies to everyone, I should have mentioned in my last chapter that I wouldn't be updating until after the New Year due to the fact that I was very busy between Christmas and January 1st. Don't worry it's not that I have got bored of this fic or anything, I have too much planned for the characters to stop now. My last chapter got fewer reviews that the others, I hope this was just due to Christmas and not the fact that everyone hated it! Thanks to everyone who did review however, I'm always happy when people comment on my story.

**Warning: **This chapter contains bad language and a semi-naked Draco (Yay!) Don't say I didn't warn you.

**Chapter 9:** Some Things Are Just Coincidence

Harry awoke the next day to find the sun streaming in at the window. For a moment he wondered where he was, then the events of the night before came flooding back and he quickly turned his head to see Draco still sleeping peacefully in the bed next to him. Very quietly, so as not to wake him or alert Madam Pomfrey to his movements, Harry got up and began pulling on his robes. They were the same ones he had been wearing the night before and they felt dirty and sweaty from the flames, but for the moment they were all Harry had in reach and he was eager to go and find his friends and give the promised explanation.

Ten minutes later Harry entered the Gryffindor common room to find Hermione and Ron sitting together on the sofa. It was the summer holidays so naturally they were the only ones there and they both turned at the sound of the portrait opening.

"Harry how are you feeling?" Hermione asked, still concerned even as he flopped down in the chair opposite them a wide grin on his face.

"I'm fine." He waved a hand dismissively at her "Really." He added, seeing the doubtful look on her face. Hermione looked as if she were about to say more so he cut her off. "Do you want to hear what happened last night or not?" Hermione frowned, torn between curiosity and concern, when Ron nudged her though she finally nodded her head.

"The first thing you should know is, things didn't exactly go to plan." Harry sighed, rubbing his eyes as he lent forward to start his explanation. Hermione looked as if she was about to ask questions, but a sharp nudge from Ron silenced her and Harry was grateful to his best friend. He needed to tell this story in his own time.

"I said I was going to go back to the hut where Voldemort's mother lived to see if there was anything that had been missed before I headed to the moor." Harry started and Hermione nodded, it had been her idea to check out this place again for any clues as to the other Horcruxes as it was one of Voldemort's only links to his mothers past. "Well I was just looking around and I hadn't found anything of interest when I heard a noise coming from outside. I left my broom and looked out the door. I suppose looking back it was rather foolish of me really, they captured me almost immediately."

Hermione and Ron gasped, there was no need for Harry to say who 'they' were, they both knew he meant the Death Eaters.

"How did they know?" Hermione wailed, even though Harry was clearly safe and sitting in front of her, she was still wide eyed with panic at the thought of her having sent Harry into the hands of the Death Eaters. Harry shrugged in reply; this was something he had been wondering himself.

"My only guess is that they were in the grounds of the mansion, and saw the light from my wand. I really don't know, maybe Draco would know." He shook his head, realising he was getting ahead of himself by mentioning Draco already. "Anyway they petrified me and carried me to the mansion, instead of going inside though they veered off and took me down into what looked like a sort of underground cellar. They dragged me through the stone passages, past all these doors whilst I desperately tried to remember which way I was going in case there was any chance of escape later on. Eventually we arrived in a room, they un-petrified me and threw me back against the door. That's when Snape pulled off his mask and challenged me to a duel."

"He didn't just kill you?" Ron interrupted looking rather incredulous.

"No" Harry shook his head "He said Voldemort had ordered that I be left for him to deal with." Ron nodded, this seemed reasonable. "Snape knew though that it would be a one-sided duel. He knows I can't use occlumency, he was able to see my every move almost before I'd even thought about them."

"But what happened? How did you escape?" Hermione was now on the edge of her seat, her hands clasped together so tightly her knuckles were white.

"Hermione it's ok, I'm here aren't I?" Harry laughed suddenly and Hermione sat back a little smiling apologetically.

"I don't know how you can treat it all so lightly." She grumbled.

"It's because I'm here Hermione. I escaped, it's over for now." Harry reasoned "Anyway as I was saying I had no chance against him, he hit me with a few curses and blocked all mine. Then something odd happened." He paused for a moment, frowning as he tried to remember exactly what had gone on. "You remember those spells in the Half-Blooded Prince's book? The spells Snape invented?" The others nodded and Harry continued "Well Snape told me not to try using them against him again like I did last time we met." Harry gulped as the memories he would rather forget came swimming across his mind. "He reminded me about what happened with Draco in the bathroom that time when I used one of the spells. I shouted something about not meaning to do it and then the next thing I knew everything had changed."

"Changed? How?" Ron and Hermione were now looking extremely confused and Harry struggled to find the words to explain how he had felt.

"Snape couldn't read my thoughts anymore. In fact I couldn't even read my thoughts anymore. It was weird, as if I wasn't controlling what I did, but it wasn't like the Imperius Curse. I used this spell that I've never heard of, Ridimace or something it was. Anyway Snape couldn't block it, it hit him in the chest, I don't know what it did, I didn't stick around, I ran for my life." The words tumbled out of Harry's mouth as if he couldn't say them fast enough and Hermione was looking at him a mixture of horror and wonder on her face.

"Was it like someone was thinking your thoughts for you?" She asked, Harry nodded and she looked even more excited "That's very advanced magic, it takes great skill at Legilimens and Occlumens. I've read about it somewhere," At this Ron rolled his eyes at Harry making him laugh; you could always rely on Hermione to have read about things somewhere. "It's when another witch or wizard not only looks at the thoughts of others but also prevents anyone else doing so, sometimes they can even twist them and make the person do think or do things they wouldn't usually."

"So they can control someone else just using their mind?" Harry was rather alarmed at this suggestion, thinking what a dangerous power it could be. To his relief Hermione shook her head.

"No, it's not like mind control, it's more a sort of suggestion of what you might do next. In this case it seems that whoever it was also used their powers of occlumens to block what was happening from Snape. The main thing that differentiates this from mind control is that a witch or wizard has to allow someone to do this to them. Although you cannot to Occlumency even you could have prevented someone from taking over your thoughts in this way if you had wanted to." Hermione explained "But of course it was working to your advantage so I bet you never even thought to try." Harry shook his head and Hermione looked thoughtful again "It would take great power to do this though, and the person would have needed to be in the room with you. You said they were all Death Eaters there though, who could it have been?"

Harry felt a little uncomfortable at this question; this was the point where he would have to explain about Draco. It was obviously him who had helped him during the duel and Harry was rather surprised that neither Ron nor Hermione had worked it out yet. Almost on cue Harry saw both their eyes grow wide.

"Not Malfoy!" Ron yelled, half leaping out of his seat and looking wildly at both Hermione and Harry as if he hoped one of them would deny it. Harry though nodded his head and rubbed his hand across his eyes again, hoping Ron wasn't going to lose his temper.

"Of course" whispered Hermione softly. "That's why he's here isn't it? He helped you." Again Harry nodded dumbly; rather surprised when instead of shouting Ron sank back down onto the sofa looking confused.

"This is just too weird." He mumbled, "Malfoy actually helped you escape the Death Eaters."

"So did Malfoy come with you when you left?" Hermione asked, reminding Harry that he still had a lot more story to tell. He shook his head and began telling them all that had happened after he had escaped from the Death Eaters clutches. He told them how he had found the location of the Horcrux, how Draco had suddenly appeared from nowhere, how he had decided to give him a chance to prove himself and how they had tackled the challenges of getting to the Horcrux together. When Harry got to the part where Draco had mistranslated the scroll causing him to pick the wrong Horcrux Ron saw red.

"He was trying to kill you! He tricked you, that slimy little ferret." Ron, who had leapt up, seemed almost on the point of rushing to the hospital wing to let Draco know exactly what he thought of this, when Hermione grabbed his arm and with surprising strength pulled him back down.

"Wait Ron, what happened next Harry?" Ron reluctantly stayed put, muttering something about 'making that bastard pay'.

"I don't know what happened after that." Harry confessed "When I picked up the wrong Horcrux it felt like something hit me in the chest, I was knocked unconscious." Hermione gazed at him uncertainly

"But how did you get back here? You had the Horcrux with you."

"I didn't have the Horcrux, Malfoy did." Harry explained, "He must have got the Horcrux and flown back here with me. That's what I told him to do before I picked up the Horcrux in case it was wrong, he had already warned me he wasn't sure if he had translated the scroll correctly, but I had to risk it anyway." Harry looked at his two friends to gauge their reactions. Ron was now looking less angry and more amazed, but Hermione still looked suspicious.

"Don't you think it seems a little odd that Malfoy was able to help you get the Horcrux so easily?" She asked "It strikes me as slightly suspicious." Harry sighed, he had known before he started that this would be the most difficult part.

"I have this theory about Voldemort's Horcruxes." He said slowly "Back when Voldemort first started splitting his soul he was doing it to ensure he could never be killed. As such I think he may have intended his Horcruxes to be accessible to his followers should anything happen to him that meant they needed to retrieve a piece of his soul. As he got more powerful however he began to think himself untouchable and also trusted his followers less and less, I suspect that perhaps only one or two ever knew about the locations of his last few Horcruxes, if any of them ever did. I think this cup might have been one of his early Horcruxes, therefore the protection around it was such that a Death Eater might find it fairly easy to overcome, whilst still keeping it hidden from outsiders."

Hermione nodded at the explanation, it did seem reasonable that whilst Voldemort was still unsure of his immortality he might do as Harry suggested, however her suspicions were not completely satisfied.

"That may be true," she admitted "but doesn't it seem strange that Malfoy turns up when you are trying to get to a Horcrux that a Death Eater could easily access? What if Voldemort sent Malfoy as a spy, what if he was supposed to help you get to the Horcrux to lull you into a false sense of security? Perhaps he's hoping we will trust Malfoy and tell him what is going on so he can report back to Voldemort?" Ron nodded along as she spoke, agreeing with what she said. Harry shook his head in frustration.

"It's not like that. Don't you see that wouldn't make sense? Why have Malfoy help me escape when they already had me captured? Why not come and recapture me when I was knocked unconscious? Why let us get hold of the real Horcrux?" Harry rubbed his hand through his hair, unsure how to explain it further. "I believe he's genuine. I was there on the tower that night, remember? I think we have to give Malfoy a chance."

Ron was now sitting back on the sofa a sort of half confused, half defeated look on his face as if he could think of nothing to say in the face of Harry's logic and was now struggling to come to terms with what this meant. Hermione however was still looking as if she was determined not to agree, luckily Harry had known Hermione long enough to realise that she wasn't disagreeing out of stubbornness or a wanting to prove him wrong. She was genuinely concerned that this was all some elaborate hoax designed to trick them.

"Well I still think it all seems suspicious." She said, folding her arms and glaring at Harry "Don't you think it's all a bit too much of a coincidence?"

"Hermione" Harry said gently, "Some things are just coincidence."

------------

In the hospital wing Draco awoke and like Harry took a moment to work out where he was. It then took another moment for him to remember how he had got here before it all came flooding back. He had betrayed Voldemort; he had betrayed his parents; he had betrayed most of his friends; and he had helped Harry Potter steal a piece of Voldemort's soul. With a groan he realised that he was probably in more danger now than he ever had been in his life and with another groan he realised that his arm still ached, he was incredibly hungry and that most likely no one here would trust him one bit.

Not that he blamed them he thought as he rolled out of bed and looked around for some clothes, he wouldn't trust him either. He found his shoes and jeans stacked neatly by the side of his bed. It went against all his instincts of good hygiene and grooming to put them back on again, but they seemed to be all that was available and he wasn't about to go anywhere in a hospital gown. The t-shirt he had been wearing last night was nowhere to be found and Draco figured they must have got rid of it; after all it was probably covered in blood. Groaning again he realised that he was stuck in the hospital wing only half dressed with no prospect of getting any fresh clothes: they were all back at the manor.

The thought of home reminded him of his parents, particularly his mother. She had loved him, he was sure of that. He'd never been so sure about his father, but his mother had often tried to protect him from things, she had cared for him and comforted him. He stopped suddenly: he didn't want to think about them right now, he knew that even his mother would probably disown him once she found out about his betrayal and that thought made his stomach twist, he hadn't expected it to affect him this much.

He had just started wondering what Madam Pomfrey might have done with his wand when the door opened and Harry and his friends stepped into the room.

--------

"I'm going upstairs to change." Harry had announced after spending a few more minutes attempting to convince Hermione. She was actually beginning to look more reassured now but had insisted she wanted to talk to Malfoy about it herself. Harry wasn't sure this was such a good idea, after all Malfoy was still Malfoy, he hadn't had a sudden personality transplant. Harry was sure he would say something awful that would turn Hermione against him no matter what Harry could try to say to convince her. Ron was looking a little unsure about the whole thing as well and had even joined Harry in trying to persuade her it wasn't a good idea. Hermione however was not to be swayed so Harry decided to escape for a while and hope Ron had more luck at persuading her not to go.

Unfortunately, when he emerged from the dormitories having showered and changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, Hermione was still adamant about speaking with Draco. Harry had no choice then but to take her to the hospital wing and hope Draco was still asleep. Once again though luck was against him, when they stepped into the hospital wing they were greeted by the sight of a half naked Draco peering into the cupboard by the side of his bed.

As they entered he straightened up and looked at them frowning. Harry couldn't help notice that Draco was rather well toned; despite being a little too thin for his height and that his pale skin looked smooth and inviting, Harry had a sudden urge to run his hand across Draco's stomach.

What! Had he really just though that? Harry blinked and cleared his throat to hide his confusion at his strange thoughts. Draco was still staring at them without saying anything and as neither Hermione nor Ron spoke Harry realised he was going to have to start the conversation.

"What are you doing?" He asked frowning, still a little embarrassed from his earlier thoughts.

"Looking for my wand." Draco replied, smirking in a way that made Harry wonder if he could read his thoughts. Just as he was telling himself off for being silly it suddenly hit him that actually Draco could read his thoughts very easily. He was fairly sure Draco wasn't trying to do so now, after all he could usually feel when someone was doing that, but the realisation still sent a sudden rush of heat to his cheeks. Glad that Hermione and Ron were both looking at Draco rather than at him Harry tried again.

"Madam Pomfrey probably has it, she will have taken it away." The smirk immediately vanished from Draco's face, replaced by the cold, emotionless expression Harry had seen there so often.

"Fine." He said, "When is she planning on returning it?" Harry knew Draco was not happy at being reminded that he was considered by most people to be untrustworthy and made an effort to change the topic.

"Why are you dressed like that?" Draco glanced down before sneering at Harry.

"I don't exactly have much to wear in case you'd forgotten Potter."

Hermione visibly recoiled at Draco's outburst; Ron however reached for his wand, reddening in anger.

"Shut up Malfoy" he spat "You're in no position to talk like that. You've no wand, you're defenceless."

"You shut it Weasel, no one asked you." Draco snapped, his face twisting in anger.

"Don't talk to him like that!" Hermione had stepped forward her fists clenched angrily by her sides. Draco smirked at her.

"Aww does Weasel need a girl to stand up for him now?" He mocked and Harry groaned. He'd known coming to see Draco was a bad idea, he just hadn't known how quickly things would descend into an argument. He put his hand on his wand, just in case things turned nasty.

"You're pathetic!" Hermione spat, "You think you're so wonderful, but all you are is an arrogant prick."

"How dare you talk to me like that." Draco hissed back, "At least I don't go round acting like a pathetic know-it-all. You don't know everything, you're just a stupid filthy little…. bitch!"

Harry had heard enough.

"Stop! Stop right now!" He stepped between the two warring parties like a referee "Hermione, Ron go find Professor McGonagall and tell her Draco is awake. I'll find him something to wear." Both Hermione and Ron opened their mouths to object but Harry opened the door and shoved them both through it. "We all need to calm down." He said more quietly as he stood in the corridor.

"He might be on our side but he's still a bastard." Ron hissed, his face still red with anger. Hermione looked at him in surprise.

"You trust him?" She asked, her mouth hanging open as she starred at him disbelievingly.

"If Harry trusts him then I do to." Said Ron firmly "I refuse to like him though, so keep him away from me." Harry grinned at Ron, his heart suddenly feeling a million times lighter, he should have known he could rely on Ron to stick by him.

"Thanks mate." He grinned again before looking to see Hermione's reaction. She was still standing there open mouthed. Then she frowned and appeared to reach some sort of decision.

"Well I'm still not sure about him, but if you two want to go along with this, fine. I can't stop you. Professor McGonagall and the others might have a few things to say though." With that she stormed off down the corridor, presumably to find the Professor. Ron and Harry shared a glance, they had been best friends long enough to know what that glance meant. Ron hurried after Hermione to try and calm her down and Harry turned to enter the hospital wing again.

--------

Almost as soon as Harry and the others had left, Draco felt a slight pang of regret for his words, not because he might have upset Granger and Weasley, he didn't really care how they felt, but they were Harry's best friends and he felt like he had let Harry down a little. Of course he had just managed to stop himself calling Granger a Mudblood. He was rather glad about that as he knew it would not have gone down well at all with any of them. It seemed like no one had noticed his self-restraint though. That was always the way of things, do something good and no one gave a damn, get something wrong and they'd come down on you like a ton of bricks.

The door reopened and Harry stepped back into the room, this time alone. Draco just looked at him, he did regret his outburst, but could think of nothing to say to explain how he felt. Once again he was let down by the fact that a Malfoy was not taught to apologise, Draco never thought to say sorry.

To his surprise though Harry actually smiled gently at him. Draco was a little alarmed by this and wondered if it was a smile like the one Voldemort had on his face just before he punished someone who had made a mistake. For a moment Draco was worried, he even took a small step back, but then he realised this was a genuine smile and grew confused instead of alarmed. After what had just happened why was Harry smiling at him?

"You didn't say Mudblood." Harry's voice was low, almost too quiet for Draco to hear. He caught the words and their meaning though and suddenly gave Harry a brilliant smile. He had noticed! Not only had he noticed but also it seemed it was all he cared about. He wasn't getting mad that Draco had insulted his friends. He wasn't shouting at him for starting the argument in the first place. He wasn't telling Draco off for the names he had used. All he was doing was acknowledging that Draco had enough self-restraint not to say Mudblood.

He could have hugged him, right then and there, he really could have hugged him. That statement meant more to Draco that he could express in words. He didn't hug Harry though, he couldn't, he was Draco Malfoy, he didn't hug people. Instead he simply nodded and his smile was gone as quickly as it had arrived.

Harry however continued to smile and made his way over to Madam Pomfrey's office. Draco wondered what he was doing and also for the first time where Madam Pomfrey actually was.

"Here." Whilst Draco was thinking Harry had ducked inside the office and emerged with Draco's wand, which he now shoved into his hands. "Come with me." Draco took the wand gratefully, he had felt rather lost without it, but was alarmed by the fact that Harry was now heading towards the door expecting him to follow.

"Er I'm only half dressed." Draco reminded him.

"I know." Harry laughed, opening the door "We're going to find you some clothes. Mine will probably be a bit big for you but I'm afraid they'll have to do."

Draco was rather nervous as he hurried through the corridors of the castle after Harry with no top on. He wasn't really self-conscious about his body, unless you counted the horrible mark on his arm that was wrapped in clean white bandages, but he didn't fancy running into one of his Professors whilst he was half naked.

"Wait here." Harry instructed Draco, and he stopped obediently in front of a portrait of a rather large lady. Harry approached it, whispered something Draco couldn't hear and it swung back revealing the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. Draco peered inside curiously thinking that it looked very cosy, but he didn't enter even though Harry left the door open. That would feel a bit too weird he decided.

"These are too small for me now so they might fit you." Harry was back and now carrying a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. "You're about the same height as me, but you're too skinny." Draco was rather insulted at this assessment of his body, how dare Harry call him skinny!

"I'm not skinny." He grumbled under his breath as Harry headed off again down the corridor.

"This way." Harry called. Draco was sure Harry was enjoying himself a little too much as he led him half dressed round the castle, he was probably hoping they would get caught and Draco would be embarrassed. Luckily for Draco though they arrived at another door without incident, and he blinked as he realised they were at the prefects' bathroom.

"The password is now 'mermish'." Harry told him, standing aside to let him enter. "Hurry up and have a shower, I'll wait here."

Draco wasted no time in stripping and stepping under the hot shower. He felt the tension drain from his muscles as the warm water massaged his naked body. For a few minutes he cleared his mind of all thoughts of what had happened and just enjoyed the sensation of the clean water washing away the dirty, sticky feeling he so hated. His peace was shattered all too soon by Harry banging on the door and yelling for him to hurry up, although in reality Draco realised he had been in the shower for nearly fifteen minutes. Quickly turning off the water he stepped out and began to dry and dress himself, Harry had given him some underwear as well and weird as it felt, Draco had no choice but to out it on.

"Who would have thought one day I'd be wearing the underwear of the-boy-who-lived." He muttered to himself as he pulled on his trainers. He gave his hair a quick rub with the towel and then opened the door in response to more impatient hammering from Harry.

"Alright, don't get so worked up." Draco grumbled as he yanked open the door, causing Harry to overbalance and stumble backwards.

--------

As the door to the bathroom opened and Draco stepped out Harry stumbled backwards, partly from losing his balance and partly from the shock of the first thought that ran through his head. Draco actually looked rather cute. The heat from the shower had brought a pink tinge to his cheeks and his damp blonde hair stuck up in every direction. The clothes Harry had given him, whilst not fitting perfectly were better than Harry had expected and showed off Draco's slender frame rather well. Most of all though Harry noticed the sparkle in Draco's eyes, he actually looked happy and relaxed for once.

Using the fact that the door had been suddenly yanked open as an excuse Harry took a moment to regain his balance and his composure. He really was loosing it he decided, what on earth was he doing thinking Draco was cute?

"Feel better?" He asked, when he finally trusted his voice not to betray his thoughts. He was rewarded with a nod and a genuine, if brief, smile from Draco

"Your taste in clothes isn't as bad as I expected." Draco mused, "Although of course it's all down to who's wearing them really." Harry laughed and as Draco grinned again Harry was struck by the oddness of the situation. Who would have ever thought he would be talking to Malfoy like this? They were even getting along and sharing a joke, if someone had said to Harry a few weeks ago that this would happen Harry would have told them they needed to see Madam Pomfrey to get their head injury treated.

Occupied with this thought Harry led Draco in silence to the staff room, where he knew Hermione and Ron would have found Professor McGonagall and the other Order members. Sure enough when he knocked and entered the familiar faces of Tonks, Reamus, Mad-Eye Moody, Mr and Mrs Weasley, Ron, Hermione and Professors McGonagall and Flitwick greeted him.

When Draco stepped through the door after him the whole atmosphere in the room changed, Harry saw Mad-Eye Moody, Reamus and Mr Weasley all reach for their wands, whilst the others sat stony faced and unmoving in the presence of their former enemy. Before anyone could speak Harry launched into the tale of what had happened last night, adding in what Hermione had told him earlier about legilimens and occlumens, but oddly leaving out the part where he had shouted at Snape about not meaning to hurt Draco. For some reason he did not want to share that with anyone except his two best friends. When he had finished, some in the room, particularly Mrs Weasley and Tonks, were looking at Draco with considerably more interest and compassion than they had previously. Moody however seemed unconvinced.

"You're too good at Occlumency for my liking." He glowered at Draco "You're mind is so tightly closed it's impossible to tell how you're really feeling. Besides no one has yet explained why you chose to change sides."

"Does there have to be a reason?" Draco retorted coldly, Harry had noticed that the moment Moody had implied that he had attempted to use legilimency on Draco his face had completely lost all expression. He now merely stood staring impassively at Moody as if nothing he said would ever have any effect on him.

"Of course there has to be a reason." Moody growled back "People don't just suddenly change sides because they feel like it and if you did how do we know you won't suddenly feel like changing back?" Draco remained silent as if nothing in this speech moved him and for a moment no one spoke.

"Perhaps Mr Malfoy would agree to questioning with Veritaserum?" Reamus suggested quietly.

"Fine." Draco's eyes flicked to Reamus but other than that he showed no sign of emotion. "If Harry asks the questions." He added suddenly turning to look at Harry. For a moment their eyes met and Harry thought he saw just the briefest flicker of something in Draco's eyes, something that looked like fear. Harry knew what the problem was, Draco had his reasons for changing sides, but they were reasons he was not yet ready to share with others. Harry respected that, he felt he could trust him in spite of his silence, but the others of course were bound to be less easily convinced. As Moody rose to fetch the Veritaserum Harry turned to his best friends, who were both looking a little taken aback.

"He called you Harry." Ron mouthed at him across the room. Harry started suddenly, he hadn't noticed this before but now he realised Ron was right, Draco had just called him Harry. He could think of nothing to say to Ron about this so contented himself with mouthing "I know" and shrugging his shoulders before turning back to where Professor McGonagall was now sitting Draco in a chair ready to receive the truth potion.

Moody returned and placed the antidote on the table whilst handing another vial of clear liquid to Draco for him to drink, Harry knew this was the Veritaserum and quickly began formulating questions in his mind. He knew Draco had chosen him to ask the questions because he realised Harry understood his need to keep his reasons private and was hoping he would not force him to reveal them under the influence of truth potion. Harry just hoped he could repay Draco's trust in him whilst convincing everyone else to believe Draco was on their side.

Draco drained the vial and if it were possible his face looked even more emotionless than before as the potion took effect.

"Name?" Harry asked

"Draco Lucius Malfoy." Came the reply in that expressionless tone of voice that Harry hated. He began questioning Draco about the events of last night, he asked him what he had done to help Harry, asked him if he could be trusted, asked him if he really had deserted Voldemort to help them, but was careful to avoid asking why he had done any of it.

When he could think of nothing more to ask he turned round to the rest of the group who had been watching and listening silently. Mrs Weasley was the first to speak.

"He really has changed sides!" She exclaimed. Even Hermione was nodding in agreement now although she still looked grim.

"Shame his personality hasn't changed at all, he's still just as arrogant." Harry couldn't help smiling at her, he was glad that both of his best friends were now firmly on his side when it came to trusting Draco.

"It all still seems very suspect to me." Mr Weasley put in "Our families have been enemies for years and we all know what his father did to Ginny. I can't suddenly start trusting their son."

"But you heard him dear, you saw him take the potion. He can't lie." Mrs Weasley reasoned "We can't blame him for what his father did." Mr Weasley consented the point although still glared at Draco with a good deal of dislike.

"This is all very well but we still don't know why he's done any of this." Moody interrupted suddenly "Suppose he's been instructed by Voldemort to switch sides."

"Did Voldemort tell you to switch sides?" Harry asked quickly, hoping to put Moody's argument to rest.

"No." Draco still wore his blank expression as he starred back at Harry.

"But why did he do it?" Moody growled again "What on earth made him suddenly start helping you escape from Snape and the other Death Eaters last night? Why suddenly switch sides now?"

"Why did you start helping Harry last night?" Moody suddenly asked turning to Draco. Draco said nothing, although Harry could see him biting his lip in the effort not to answer. "Come on why?" Moody repeated rather angrily.

"I don't have to answer you, it was agreed only Harry would ask questions." Draco was panting, as if the effort of not answering was exhausting him, then suddenly he burst out. "Because Harry was my enemy and he regretted hurting me, that's more than my so-called friends and my father have ever done!"

Harry had heard enough; he leapt up and quickly tipped the antidote down Draco's throat. As Draco swallowed a sudden look of pain came rushing onto his expressionless face and he collapsed forward into Harry's arms. At once Mrs Weasley and Professor McGonagall rushed to aid him and as they relieved Harry of Draco's weight he stepped back and caught a glimpse of the bandages around Draco's arm.

They were soaked in blood.

--------------------------------------------

Oh dear, poor Draco's having a bit of a bad time of it at the moment isn't he? Despite the Veritaserum I don't think the Order or Ron and Hermione will welcome him with open arms. In the coming chapters Blaise will arrive, everyone will leave Hogwarts and Draco will amaze Hermione. He and Harry will also start to get a bit closer. Till next time then, please review.

Love, laughs and lollipops,

Sivany


	5. Just An Empty Shell

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter isn't mine. It's a shame but in time I feel we may get over it and be able to move forward with our lives.

**AN: **It's been a long time hasn't it? I came to a dead stop on this story for so long that I was beginning to wonder how I would ever come back to it. Today though I had a sudden urge to read through what I had got so far and found that by doing the odd paragraph here and there I had actually got most of this chapter written. After a bit of editing it's ready to post and I've even got some idea of what I'm going to write in the next one. If the writing style varies a bit in this chapter then I apologise, it's due to the fact that it has been written over about 4 months and although I've tried to get it to all follow on properly I fear I may have failed at some points. Still it's a chapter and it introduces a new character, Blaise. I know he's black and everything, but unfortunately we weren't told that until the sixth book, by which time he was firmly in my headastall, slim, white and black haired, so that's how he is going to be in this story. Sorry!

**Chapter 10: **Just An Empty Shell

For the second time Draco awakened in the hospital wing, this time though he didn't need to look round to work out where he was, he remembered the events of yesterday only too clearly.

Moody had forced him to admit something he really hadn't wanted to tell anyone, he'd only agreed to the Veritiserum on the condition that Potter got to ask him the questions. He could tell Potter understood that he didn't want to talk about it, ironic really that after all the years of arguments and hatred he had found himself putting his trust in Harry. Obviously though it hadn't worked and now everyone knew that he was weak, that he had feelings, that he wanted someone to care for him. Malfoy's weren't supposed to show their feelings, and they weren't supposed to be moved by people showing them compassion; only the weak need other people: his father had always taught him that.

Groaning Draco closed his eyes and buried his head in his pillow, he just couldn't face getting up and having everyone feel sorry for him, he didn't want or need their pity, in fact he would much rather they thought he was a spy for Voldemort than some sort of weak little boy they had to feel sympathy for. He knew though that at some point he would have to get out of bed and he briefly contemplated whether it was better to get up voluntarily now or have someone come and force him to get up later. Just as he decided on the former however he was interrupted by the sound of the door opening.

He rolled over in bed to see Harry quietly shutting the door behind him and he hurriedly sat up and ran his fingers through his hair, after all it was bad enough being in a hospital bed, there was no need to look a mess as well. Seeing he was awake Harry strolled over and took a seat by the bed.

"How's your arm?" He asked.

"Fine." Draco replied a little stiffly, he found he was rather unsure how to act after what had happened yesterday, Harry though seemed unfazed.

"You've been asleep for ages, about 20 hours." he informed him. Draco had already suspected it was a day later than when he had collapsed wasn't really surprised by this news.

"We're not staying at Hogwarts." Harry continued when Draco made no response. "It's not safe enough here, especially not for you. We're moving to the headquarters of The Order of the Phoenix."

Draco had the distinct impression from the way Harry had lowered his voice that this was an important piece of information and one that perhaps some of the others might not have wanted to share with him. Of course he knew what The Order was, all Death Eaters did, but he hadn't really given much though to the fact that it might have a headquarters and that he might actually have to go there, until now.

"Where is it?" Was the only question he could think of to ask, it was a stupid one he realised as soon as it left his mouth, but it was too late then to take it back.

"I can't tell you, I'm not the secret keeper." Harry replied, shaking his head. "We can't go yet anyway, we have to wait for someone to arrive." This last piece of information was imparted with a suppressed smile and Draco knew he was supposed to ask who. For a moment he considered not rising to the bait, after all pleasing Harry Potter wasn't exactly high on his agenda, but eventually his curiosity got the better of him. The reply was worth it.

"Blaise Zabini."

"Blaise?" Draco echoed, knowing that his face was displaying a very un-Malfoy like surprise. "Why?"

"He wants to help." Harry replied simply. Draco was silent for a while whilst he thought about this. It was odd he thought that Blaise was coming out in favour of one side, he and his family had always remained rather neutral, protected from being singled out as blood traitors by his mothers status, the fact that they were Slytherin's, and their friendship with several Death Eater families. Even when his sister had married a half blood no one had said anything much, after all that was when Voldemort had long been defeated and the family status was enough to ensure the comments were kept to a minimum. In fact if it wasn't for that Draco would have actually had Blaise down as someone rather likely to turn Death Eater, the fact that he had gone for the complete opposite was rather surprising and Draco knew there must be a good reason. He tried to formulate a way to ask what it was without seeming to obvious, after all he didn't want Harry to think he was questioning his friends loyalties. Before he could speak though Harry sprung another question on him.

"Did you know his older sister?" Harry asked, knowing he could put this off no longer. He hadn't wanted to tell Draco this right now, but with Blaise arriving that afternoon there wasn't much choice.

"Yes, is she helping too?" replied Draco looking surprised at the question "She was a nice girl, she married a half blood… I mean not that it matters… but..." He trailed off and looked apologetically at Harry, who didn't say anything, after all he knew old habits were hard to shake and there was something more important on his mind.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this but…" Harry looked away unsure what to say and Draco's eyes widened; he already knew what was coming next. "Her and her husband were found murdered in their home about a week ago, had you not heard?"

Draco shook his head dumbly, wondering how he had missed that piece of news. Of course she would have changed her name after she got married, he had never known what her married name was. If someone had mentioned it he wouldn't have associated the name with Blaise's sister. To his horror he suddenly felt tears spring to his eyes. Cara had always been kind to him; she had let him and Blaise borrow her broomstick when they were younger and had often taken them to Diagon Alley in the summer holidays.

He turned away from Harry, blinking furiously, he couldn't let Harry see him cry, it wasn't like him to cry at all. He seemed to be getting very emotional recently; perhaps it was just the shock. Yes, that must be it he decided, his mind was having to cope with so many changes all at once and it was just a bit shocked, that's why he was feeling emotional. All he had to do was pull himself together.

After a moment he turned back to Harry, who had wisely sat silently as Draco struggled with his tears, but who now continued.

"After she was murdered Blaise contacted us. His mother is going into hiding somewhere but he wants to help capture those who did it. He's coming to Hogwarts at the end of the week, once he arrives we'll be leaving for the Headquarters."

"Blaise is coming here?" Draco's eyes lit up suddenly as Harry nodded. "We used to be great friends when I was younger. Then after… Well you know… My father banned me from seeing him in the holidays, didn't really work though." Draco smirked suddenly, as he remembered how he had defied his father on that one and managed not to get caught.

"Right…." said Harry rather lamely, and Draco realised too late that Harry would have no idea what he was talking about and was rather glad when Harry chose to ignore the information rather than ask follow-up questions. Draco really didn't feel like discussing his life right now. "I think Madam Pomfrey is going to insist on you having your lunch in bed, but straight afterwards you should get up. You can wear my clothes again." Draco wrinkled his nose at the thought of putting on anything other than freshly washed clothes and Harry rolled his eyes "You only wore them for an hour yesterday, I'm not giving you anymore. We'll have to arrange to get you some more later, I don't know how since you can't exactly go shopping but we'll think of something."

"Anyway I'll see you later." Harry finished suddenly, getting up quickly and heading for the door. Draco just had time for a vague "yeah" before Harry had disappeared, and Draco was left listening to the sound of his receding footsteps.

Draco was rather glad he had gone, conversations with Potter still felt extremely strange and he often felt like he was steering a rather rickety ship through rough seas that at any moment might throw up a wave big enough to capsize the entire vessel. The information Harry had given him though was not unwelcome, and he found himself looking forward to Blaise's arrival. At the moment he felt rather alone, he was no longer a Death Eater, but he also wasn't part of The Order. He was somewhere in the middle, and no one trusted him.

Apart from Potter he reminded himself, but even then there was no friendship, true he had got on surprisingly well with Harry on several occasions in the last few days but Harry had his friends and he didn't need Draco. Of course, Draco told himself, he didn't want Harry's friendship, he didn't want the friendship of anyone here, but that didn't stop him feeling like he was alone. At least when Blaise arrived he would have someone to talk to, an equal who wouldn't look down on him as some sort of traitor.

He ate the lunch Madam Pomfrey brought to him in silence, then pulled on Harry's clothes and retired to the Slytherin common room. He had a lot of thinking to do.

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Over the next few days Harry didn't see much of Draco. He appeared at mealtimes in the Great Hall, still wearing Harry's clothes, looking even paler than usual and always bearing the same closed off expression. He spoke only when spoken to and never once made eye contact with anyone. Mrs Weasley with her motherly nature thought he was probably missing his mother and regretted that he could not see her anymore. Others however were not so kind. Moody thought that Draco was regretting his change of heart and wished himself back with the Death Eaters. Hermione believed he thought their conversation was beneath him as they were not pure-blooded and Ron merely put it down to the fact that Malfoy was a 'pompous twat'. Harry though thought there might be something else to Draco's silence, that Draco might actually be feeling like an outcast who didn't belong. He had made several efforts to strike up a conversation with him at dinnertime, but hampered by Draco's monosyllabic answers he eventually gave up and began to agree with Ron.

He couldn't understand though what was going on, he and Malfoy had actually been getting along for a while, they had worked together without killing each other and had actually managed to have conversations that were quite friendly. Now though Malfoy had closed off, and although he wasn't throwing insults like he used to Harry wasn't sure it was an improvement, at least insults would have been evidence that Malfoy was still in there. At the moment Harry felt like he was looking at an empty shell of his former enemy.

As the days until Blaise's arrival dragged by Hermione frequently complained that Draco was spending a lot of time in the library reading, Harry could see nothing wrong with this but Hermione said she felt like he was watching her all the time and started bringing her books to the common room to read instead.

It wasn't until the day before Blaise's arrival that Draco finally broke his silence and it was only by chance that Harry knew he had spoken at all. Tonks had announced at breakfast that she was going to Diagon Alley and that she would be willing to purchase anything anyone wanted. Hermione had immediately produced a large list of books she wanted to help her research R.A.B. and find out more about the protection that could be round the Horcruxes, and Mrs Weasley had asked her to buy some new wool for sweaters she was knitting. Harry hadn't asked her to buy anything, but after breakfast had realised he could do with a new cloak and had hurried to the Entrance Hall to catch Tonks before she left.

He was just about to step into the Entrance Hall when he realised that Tonks was already talking to someone. Draco Malfoy seemed to be almost pleading with her about something and she was listening, arms crossed and stony faced, occasionally shaking her head. Harry strained to hear what was going on, but they were too far away and he had to be content with watching and wishing he had some of Fred and George's extendable ears on him. Eventually Tonks nodded and Harry saw Draco take something from round his neck and hand it to her with a look of gratitude. Harry was so busy wondering what it was that he didn't notice Draco had disappeared and Tonks was heading towards the door, with a shout he rushed towards her and asked about the cloak. He thought about asking what Draco had wanted but thought better of it, whatever it was couldn't have been bad or Tonks would have refused to help, but he did wonder what it was Draco had given her. It had looked like something on a chain, but whatever it was had been too small for Harry to see. As he made his way back to the common room a few minutes later Harry wondered how he could find out.

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The next day Draco was absent from breakfast, but Harry didn't have time to dwell too much on why as he wolfed down his bacon. Blaise was arriving in one hour to make the journey to Grimmauld Place with them, and as usual he and Ron had left their packing till the last minute.

It was a rather flushed and flustered Harry who finally dragged his trunk down to the Entrance Hall minutes before Blaise was due to arrive. Hermione tutted as he and Ron let their heavy trunks thunk to the floor, then jerked her head at someone over Harry's shoulder. He turned to look and for a moment didn't register what he was seeing. Draco Malfoy was standing, his arms folded casually as though nothing unusual was going on, looking as if he had just stepped off the cover of a magazine.

Harry realised that his jaw was hanging open and quickly shut it before turning away to try and digest what he had seen. Draco had apparently got Tonks to buy him some new clothes. Black jeans, black t-shirt and jacket, black cloak draped over what was clearly a new trunk. Of course that wasn't what was so amazing, after all Harry had seen Draco wearing something similar the night they had got the Horcrux. What had thrown Harry though was what Draco was wearing on his feet. They were black boots: at first they had reminded Harry of cowboy boots, but after a moment he realised that they weren't really and that actually they were more like the sort of boots Dumbledore used to wear. Despite the fact that something told him only women should wear boots with heels he had never thought they looked out of place on Dumbledore, and was now surprised to find that they actually looked quite good on Malfoy as well. He risked another look, this time he caught Draco's eye and was treated to a rather confident smirk. As he turned away the world suddenly seemed a much better place, it looked like Draco Malfoy was back.

----------

Draco smirked to himself as Potter turned away, obviously the new clothes had made quite an impression and since putting them on this morning Draco had to admit he was feeling a lot more like his old self.

He was still rather nervous about seeing Blaise though. He was pretty sure no one would have thought to inform him that Draco was now at Hogwarts and he wondered what his first reaction would be. Would he hate him for once being part of the group that had murdered his sister? Or would everything just be like it used to be when they were at school together? He was fairly certain it would be the latter, but that didn't stop the little niggle of doubt at the back of his mind, even if on the outside he looked calm and collected.

His musings were cut short by the sound of the huge front doors creaking open and moments later a tall boy with longish black hair came striding into sight. Professor McGonagall hurried forward to greet him along with some of the other Order members and Draco moved forwards to where Harry and his friends were standing, waiting to be noticed.

----------

Harry felt himself tense as Malfoy stepped along side him although he had no idea why. He shook himself a little before shaking the hand Blaise offered in his direction, wondering how he would react when he spotted Draco.

Harry didn't have to wait long for his answer, when Blaise finally did turn, his look of confusion was quickly replaced by a grin as Draco flashed him his trademark smirk.

"Draco!" exclaimed Blaise, recovering quickly and kissing Draco on each cheek. There were many raised eyebrows from the onlookers, but Draco just looked vaguely amused.

"Blaise." he replied carefully, before any pretence at courteous detachment was dropped and the two began talking fast. Much to everyone's surprise though they weren't speaking English; Harry thought it sounded rather like French, a suspicion that was confirmed when they finally stopped long enough for Hermione to blurt out:

"I didn't know you spoke French!"

For a moment Harry was sure he saw a look of panic flicker across Blaise's face, Draco however remained calm.

"So you speak French?" he drawled at Hermione "You understood what we were saying?"

"No." Hermione shook her head frowning "You speak too fast, I'm not that fluent. All I picked up was the word beautiful and a few…erm…" she blushed slightly "bad words."

Draco grinned wickedly as Harry and Ron snickered at Hermione's embarrassment "I think it's probably a good job you're not fluent in French if a few 'bad words' make you blush." Draco drawled, making Harry wonder what he and Blaise could have been talking about that was so bad. "Now don't we have somewhere to be?"

Harry shook his head as Draco and Blaise started another more hushed conversation, this was a complete turn around from the Draco who had been moping about the castle barely saying a word all week. Harry wondered if it was an act, did he just want to save face in front of Blaise? Pretend everything was normal? Harry didn't really have much time to think about it because Professor McGonagall was calling them all over to take hold of the Portkey that would transport them to Grimmauld Place.

They clustered round the book, Harry trying to ignore the fact that Draco was pressed up against him on one side but feeling almost as uncomfortable as he had in the fiery passage on the moor. A long slow minute ticked by, and Harry could feel himself getting distinctly hot and flustered, when he felt the familiar jerk behind his navel and a moment later found himself being flung onto the cold pavement outside the Order's Headquarters.

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Well I finally managed to get this chapter out, I hope you all enjoyed it and I'm going to try and update a lot more frequently from now on. In the next chapter there are quite a few revelations for the characters, and I'm planning a lot more interaction between Harry and Draco. Now they are living and sleeping in much closer quarters who knows what might happen! Till next time, please review. :)

Love and lollipops,

Sivany.


	6. Somewhere I Lost Myself

**Authors Notes:** I know some people still have this story on their alerts list so I just wanted to let everyone know that I have rewritten the first few chapters and am reposting the entire stoy. It now goes up to what would be the equivalent of chapter 20 (probably) if I had kept on going with this format so there is plenty for you to read. I will be posting over at the new story at the rate of one chapter every few days so if you have read this far it won't take long to get to this point, plus I highly recommend you go back and read all the new version because there is one rather large plot point difference quite early on. (I don't want to give too much away!)

I wasn't sure how to let everyone know about this, so I'm posting a tiny bit of a chapter here along wit this notice. Once I think everyone has gone across to the new story I'll be deleting this entirely.

The new version is called Mind Games, if you do a search it should come up. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the new version just as much (if not more!)

**Chapter 11 beginning!** (will not be chapter 11 of the new version so don't hang around waiting until you see I get to 11 over there because you'll miss a large chunk!)

Draco looked around him as they landed on a stone pavement, outside what looked to him like an ordinary row of houses. A piece of parchment was thrust into his hand almost before he had time to think and he just had time to read the words "12 Grimmauld Place" before the note burst into flames.

Immediately a large, old looking house seemed to blossom in the space between two of the ordinary houses. It had the look of a house that had once been very grand, but had been left to become run down, before someone had tried to restore it and tidy up the outside.

Professor McGonagall hustled them all up the path and through the front door, warning them to be quiet. Draco got only the vaguest glimpse of the hall and stairs before he found himself in a large kitchen, with the door closed behind him and everyone chatting at once as if they had just been allowed to break a vow of silence.

"Thank goodness she didn't wake up this time," he heard Ron grumble. "I wish someone would find a way to get that portrait off the wall, it's stupid having to tiptoe around just to stop that old hag from screaming."

Draco was desperate to ask someone what Ron was talking about and why they had to be quiet in the hallway, but not liking anyone to think him ignorant of anything he held his tongue and hung back from the group as they gathered round the table to examine some scrolls.

There had been a few people in the kitchen already when they entered, other Order members Draco assumed, and after a while they noticed him and began throwing him some very curious looks. He had to admit he was rather relieved and more than a little grateful, when Harry suggested they all take their luggage up to their rooms.

The burst of questions about his presence began even before the door shut behind them and it took rather a lot of will power for Draco to pretend he hadn't heard them and follow the others along the hall and up the stairs. As they passed a large curtain that seemed to be concealing part of the wall, Harry pointed and whispered, "she's behind there, shhhh." Draco wondered who 'she' was, but was no more inclined to ask now than he had been before and they climbed the stairs in silence.

At the top of the first flight of stairs the corridor branched off in both directions and Draco could see a number of doors leading to various rooms. Hermione seemed to know where she was going and immediately disappeared into one of the rooms on the left, whilst Ron and Harry held a brief whispered conversation, during which Draco stood away from them, trying to look aloof as he inspected some of the portraits on the wall, one of which bore a striking resemblance to his mother.

Harry and Ron were apparently discussing which room to give him, for when their conversation ended Ron took his trunk into the nearest room on the right whilst Harry showed Draco to a room further along the corridor. After giving brief instructions on how to get to the bathroom and informing Draco that he would be sleeping in the room next door, he disappeared, leaving Draco to his own devices.

The room he was in was small and cramped. At some point someone had decided it was big enough for a double bed, although this left little room for the chest of drawers, wardrobe and rather large mirror also occupying the room. With his trunk now taking up most of the remaining floor space Draco hardly had room to move and decided that the quicker he unpacked the quicker he could move the trunk out the way. Frowning in annoyance he threw back the lid and began to put his clothes away.


End file.
